The following description of background art may include insights, discoveries, understandings or disclosures, or associations together with disclosures not known to the relevant art prior to the present invention but provided by the invention. Some of such contributions of the invention may be specifically pointed out below, whereas other such contributions of the invention will be apparent from their context.
With the ever increasing demand for increasing data rates and higher quality services in the world of mobile communications comes ever increasing demand for better performance of cellular network infrastructures. People use their mobile equipment with support for high data rate services while they are at work, at home, and/or while traveling on a mass transportation vehicle, e.g. bus, train, and ship. Such a mass transportation vehicle may travel at a speed of up to 100 m/s, and a huge number of communicating mobile devices in the vehicle traveling at the same speed sets high demands for network operators, because the users wish to preserve their high data rate connections regardless of the speed of the vehicle.
Long-term evolution (LTE) of the 3rd generation mobile communication system standardized within 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) has introduced a relayed extension to cellular network infrastructure. Relaying links between user terminals and conventional base stations through mobile relays or relaying base stations improves capacity, coverage, and data rates. The mobile relays may be installed in buses, trains, cruisers and other mass transportation vehicles.
One problem associated with supporting mobile relay systems is the need of providing and ensuring sufficiently high data rates for the mobile wireless backhaul connections, also referred to as relay links, between a mobile relay system and donor cellular systems which are changing in time due to the mobility of the mobile relay system. The fair sharing of limited radio resources of the donor cellular systems with other regular mobile users needs to be solved as well.
In addition, there is the need for the mobile relay system to support all mobile users aboard, regardless of their associated home operators, also referred to as the multi-operator problem.